Tracking this Trek, a Treadmill Desk Update

So, we're 2 months in on the treadmill desks.  And we're still walking.  And walking.  The weight loss has slowed down, mostly because we haven't really made huge changes in how we eat.  And the sore feet have slowed me down from my weeks where I'd have a few days with 40k steps.  But here are the stats for the last 2 months (well, 2 months and a week, technically).

Now, something has changed in the last couple of weeks, and it's that I'm now also walking with a FitBit One.  This is an activity tracker that I clip into my pocket or to my waistband if I don't have a pocket.  It tracks my activity, and can tell when I'm active.  I will admit, though, that we have arguments daily about what a "very active" minute feels like to it and to me.  There are several different activity trackers out there, and I was having a hard time deciding which I would like more.

The FitBit band or bracelet wasn't ideal for one simple reason: I'm walking on a treadmill at a desk.  That means that instead of swinging my arms when I'm walking, I'm usually typing or clicking or 'keyboard mashing' my way through a video game.  So it wouldn't be as ideal a way to measure my activity: I'm not going anywhere and my arms really aren't moving.  The FitBit zip was cheaper ($60, compared to the $95 I paid for the One at Target, taking advantage of my 5% off with the card and a handy sale on the day I went in there to browse), but it has a replaceable battery.  I've met me: once the battery died, if it's not AA or AAA, which it's not, then it's going to sit in a drawer until I remember to buy a watch type battery to replace it.  And that's useless to me.  Self-awareness is kind of important.

There were other trackers to look at: the Jawbone Up, the iFit, the Polar, Samsung, Garmin.  If you Google "activity tracker", the variety is a little daunting.  The problem with most of these activity trackers is that very few of them have an actual heart rate monitor, and, like the FitBit band, rely on you moving your arm to detect activity.  Again, not really helpful.  The One doesn't have a heart rate monitor, either, and that's not what I was looking for, but it is what Noah wants, and the main reason why he's not using a tracker at this point. There are some standalone heart rate monitors, and the Misfit Shine seems to be the best heart rate/fitness combo (it can even be used while swimming, which most of the others cannot).

The advantage of the tracker for me is that it can measure my activity outside of the home.  I walk a bit at work, and I was curious how many steps I wasn't measuring.  Turns out it's around 3000 per day.
The other advantage is that I can use this tracker (and a number of other ones) with the My Fitness Pal application.  This is great, because now I can set weight goals, friend up with people, keep a food journal, view calories in and out, etc.  It also has a pretty thriving community and many of my friends are there.  I also can invite patients to 'friend' me via MFP or FitBit's app, so that I can cheer them on as well.

I will say that I'm disappointed that MFP doesn't allow me to set the calorie or carb recommendations (they recommend a really high number of calories and carbs for me, based on old recommendations that 30% of daily calories come from grains, which is an outdated view).  However, I know that I should be closer to 150 grams of carbohydrate, so I ignore their 'gift' of 270.

According to the support person at Lifespan Fitness (the makers of my beloved treadmill desk), they are working on improving their app, which is blessed news at our house.  Their current set up only works with PC or iPad, and no android tablets or phones.  It also has a few glitches here and there, but all of them do.

It's been great for tracking my daily activity and my overall data (the stats above are from the Lifespan console).  They're also doing some other upgrades, which I hope includes integration with other fitness trackers (right now they're only compatible with the Garmin) like the FitBit and integration with other fitness apps like MFP.  There are certainly a million apps and it seems half as many trackers, so I understand if they don't get them all, but I really would love to see all of my data in one clean place.

For right now, I'm sticking with the Lifespan data for this blog, since that's what I started with.  I feel like it would be a bit disingenuous to start adding in all day information, when that's not what I was doing to start. However, the My Fitness Pal has really helped me to continue to monitor all of my fitness.  Maybe after the first year, I can switch over to the more comprehensive measures, and heck, maybe the Lifespan app will allow me to do that as well.

So far, however, tracking my activity and my food has been really rewarding and fun.  Seeing the little tracker tell me how many pounds I'm down and how many I have to go is a fun visual reminder that I'm doing great (although since I started in, the results are not quite as dramatic as they were initially).  Knowing that if I have a night where I'm tired and don't want to push for those 10k steps on the treadmill desk, I can check my FitBit and see that I've still gotten between 3 to 5k steps already and sleep a little better.

I know it says 0 lost but that's just since I started with My Fitness Pal